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★★★★☆

“Get a balcony room to see beyond your walls, we had...”

written by Robert Mitchell on 10/06/2007

Good Points
Surprise renewal of vows worked, Zip Trip in the jungle canopy, met many friendly people, calm water.

Bad Points
Structured vacation, engine problems, jewellery purchase problems.

General Comments
Get a balcony room to see beyond your walls, we had good and bad experiences, with the good issues outweighing the bad.



This is a pretty long and detailed description but worthy of looking at. We returned from a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Sapphire Princess in April 2006. Both good things and some not so good things happened on this cruise, which was also our first cruise ever. Overall it was a good vacation but for reasons mentioned below, it may be a while before we take another.



The Sapphire Princess is a large ship and very nicely decorated. It carries about 2600 passengers. There is a 3 deck atrium in the centre that is very nice. The entire ship is nice for that matter.



The first thing you need to realize on a cruise is that there are going to be formal nights aboard. Our seven-night cruise had two. This requires packing a suit at the very least. Tuxedos are mentioned but a good dark suit is sufficient. Other nights you are expected to dress nicely, referred to as smart-casual. I packed a sports coat and slacks for these times. I noticed after a couple of days that a number of men wore no coat or tie so I stopped as well. The issue of formal or smart-casual is up to the individual. If you do not want to participate in the dress-up you can simply go to the buffet or have room service. As I thought this was a strict issue I gave in and took along a suit, which suited my needs nicely for the item following. Dress-up or not I do not rate with any value, as the option is yours. It might require more suitcases though if you elect to get dressy.



The best thing of the entire trip was surprising my wife by arranging to have the Captain renew our vows while we were at sea, which happened to be on the first formal night. She was completely unaware of what was in the works. The ship purser was a great help arranging for flowers and other items. The cost is about $200 for this level of vows renewal. Regardless, it was well worth it. For this part of the trip I give Princess an A+++.



The wedding photographer could have done a better job as he got shots of the back of our heads and other shots of the Captain looking down while reading. The posed shot afterwards were quite good though. For his part I give the cameraman a B+.



If you want to have your photo taken you will get many opportunities. There were quite a few cameras and backdrops to choose from on the first formal night. The second formal night had fewer options to select from. Photos were also taken when we initially boarded and every time we disembarked at a port. These photos were on display in a designated area for later viewing in the hopes that they would be purchased. The cost was about $22 each for 8' by 10' size. That really is not too bad if you consider the cruise a special occasion. You are not obligated to buy any, for their effort I rate the pictures a B+.



Our cabin had a balcony, which I highly recommend. The room was about the same as a small room at a hotel, not large yet not cramped. A balcony gives the impression of more space, as well as the ability to see other ships, land, whales and dolphins, which we did get to see. If you can, take along a small set of binoculars. When we signed up for the trip we were fortunate enough to be moved to a higher deck (LIDO) and for that I am grateful.

Tip: There are more shelves and a room safe behind the mirror by the closet.

Tip: A word of caution. You do not want your room to be too close to the rear of the ship, more properly referred to as aft, as engine vibrations can be easily felt, even during the daytime. Imagine how that would be at night! Our cabin steward was exceptional. He was friendly and always very helpful. I grade this out as A+, based strictly on my own expectations.



In fact, the entire crew was friendly and helpful. Almost all restaurant servers were very well trained. Only one pair that served us did not quite use the proper etiquette by serving myself before my wife. We did not have any wine, so the issue of wine tasting etiquette did not occur. I am not trying to be snobbish and mention it only as a nice bonus. I bring it up as cruise ships are supposed to be on top of proper etiquette or so I have been led to believe. It was nice to see it in action when it did occur, which was often. This warranted another A rating for Princess.



There is a large theatre that seats about 900 people in comfortable seats. Entertainment was good but I was expecting shows to be more like Vegas. Larger meetings and films were in here also at various times. There was no outside theater as I was led to believe. My error. This section I will rate as B+.



The primary drawback, to us, was that the cruise was more structured than we like. If you want to go to a sit-down dinner other than the buffet, you need to make reservations, the earlier you make them the better. If you want a window seat for the entire trip, you should plan in advance. There is no additional charge for a standard restaurant meal but there is an extra charge of $20 for a specialty restaurant reservation. We did not like the idea of extra fees, so did not go to the one on our ship. As a result, we cannot review that item. We did try several other eating areas but overall we found the food somewhat mediocre. It was better than bland but not by much. Admittedly, I like my food spicy but I can tell if my food is tasty or not. We did have very good sliced pineapple every morning and at lunch as part of our meals at the buffet. I grade the food overall with only a C.



The concierge told me that the restaurants all serve the same food, with the exception of a few dishes special to that restaurant. We did have a good Cornish hen one night and on another night we each had two reasonably sized small lobsters that were also good. None of the meals were large portions but why waste food? If you want more you can get it immediately or you can always get some sort of food at the buffet 24 hours a day. You can also buy pizza slices near the swimming pool during the day. For the lack of menu variety I grade this part of the cruise with a B.



Items have changed even more, as noted by some passengers that have been on other Princess cruises told us. As expected, if you use the items in your stateroom such as soda or water, you will have these items added to your room bill. There is a small fridge that is adequate. We were told that not long ago was there no fee for water or soda, there was free ice cream at the back of the ship. We did not find any ice cream machine aft. We did not like the flavour and sweetness of the ice cream served at the outside creamery by the pool. The scooped ice cream at dinner, however, was fine. Overall, I grade this group of items as a C-.



There is a Casino on the ship and some people did win but not us. I did have a little problem at the Casino with the cashing of travellers checks. I do not want to explain further but I was not happy with the answer I was given by the manager. Suffice it to say that you should be certain you date your travellers checks yourself. By the way, there is a small additional fee if you have money charged to your room. I feel compelled to grade the issues that I had with the Casino as a D-. I could be in error but this is how I feel.



At Puerto Vallarta, we decided to do the Jungle Canopy Adventure, there were 14 people in our group. We were driven about 60 miles from the ship for the excursion. I refer to it as our Zip Trip. You zip across cables from tree top to tree top. We went in late April and surprisingly the jungle was rather dry where we were. We used DEET bug spray but we got bitten quite a few times anyway. We still have some very notable bites 2 week later. Another couple on the same Zip with us had no bites and did not even use any bug spray. I guess we drew them all to us with what turned out to be bug perfume. We really did enjoy the Zip Trip. My wife was afraid she could not do the 70-foot rappel at the end but she did and really enjoyed it. We would do it again but recommend long pants and a long sleeved shirt instead of shorts and a short sleeve shirt. This Zip Trip we rated as A-.



The Mexican guides during the Zip were very friendly and helpful. Follow their advice and do not take your glove off, as I foolishly did to take a picture. I was cautioned prior but thought I could sneak in just one shot. I actually did drop my glove and would have been done for the outing but fortunately, the glove landed on my foot. I also was properly scolded for taking my glove off. Go early in the day, as it does get much hotter as the day goes on. The brochure says that a sweater is recommended and that you should be in very good physical condition. We did not need a sweater but could see where one might be needed. Prior to the Zip, everything that belonged to our Zip group but was not needed got placed into one huge bag and left at the start point with an employee. The next group uses another huge bag. The only physical part of the Zip is walking up a moderately steep trail about 100 feet or so at the very beginning and an easier but longer one at the end. You should not have to rush coming back up the slope as the guides will be trying to sell their video to everyone. It might be a quarter mile back to the starting point, where you will also find the bathrooms and trucks, both of which will be an incentive to move along anyway. You can reclaim your belongings here as well. The trails mentioned are just dirt ones. Being a former technical climber myself, I recognized that the guides knew what they were doing. For their knowledge, guidance and humour, I rate the guides as A++.



The structured issue I referred to earlier pertains to the necessity that everything on board happens on a set schedule. If you decide to participate, then you follow a schedule too. We went to a jewellery show and learned that prices were good for many items in Mexico. We had no idea that jewellery shopping would be available at such prices, so we decided to go looking. We looked after our Zip Trip and realized the prices really were very good but we had to get back to the ship, as it would soon be sailing from Puerto Vallarta and we did not want to be left behind. Judging from the names called to report to the pursers desk shortly after we left port, we estimate about 6 people, or groups, did not make it back in time. The structure and strict timetable I rate as a C but this is strictly my taste as I usually am taking a vacation to escape these items.



Our next stop was at Mazatlan. Here we had already signed up for a city tour that was nothing to write home about. Yet here I am doing just that?



The following two purchases are at stores recommended by Princess Cruises in the Discover Shopping flyers delivered each day to your cabin. These are supposed to be good places to shop. We had problems at these two shops that we hope to get corrected. The ratings for these purchases will have to be added later, so look for another review that details how these are progressing. We hope they do not take long to get settled properly.



Store #1 - We finally got some time to shop and bought a very nice Tanzanite ring at Tanzanite International (TI) but it had to be sized. We later discovered there was a problem with the way the stone was sitting in the ring that we received. We decided to have it adjusted further at the TI at our next port, Cabo San Lucas. We are sure the stone that was returned to us was not the same one we bought in Mazatlan. This was confirmed when we had it appraised back home at a jeweller that we have used many times before. The best TI would do is provide us with store credit. No refunds were offered unless it is the same day as the purchase. Of course that means having to go to another of their stores on another trip. Even our credit card company (American Express) was unable to get our store credit turned into cash. We had to mail the ring back very quickly to New York where their Customer Service location is. Even though they knew we were complaining about the stone having been swapped for an inferior stone, the Customer Service department claimed they put the ring back into stock immediately. They could not examine the stone to compare it to the purchase receipt. That's the story anyway. They also claimed that this stone swapping has never happened before. Under these conditions this is true because there is never time to make a report. Thus buyer beware really does mean just that. We must make a trip to a location that has one of their stores within 2 years and trust that we really get what we paid for.

Store #2 - In Cabo San Lucas we also bought an Ammolite ring at Royal Jewellers. The stone setting is somewhat like a rainbow with red on one side, then green, then blue on the opposite end. We were told it was a doublet with the Ammolite on the bottom and the top was clear sapphire. Our later appraisal told us it was a triplet, with the slightly torn Ammolite glued to a bottom surface and covered with a very thin top coating. Our jeweller said he would never try to clean it as the top layer was so thin. Regardless, it is a striking ring worth keeping.



I should point out that lanes on a road do not mean much in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, the only places we were on the roads. Traffic just merges whenever it is convenient. We took 1 bus and 3 taxi trips and we were very uncomfortable during each of them. We walked near the pier at Cabo San Lucas and on the only street we crossed, the driving was more normal to our thinking. Drivers stayed in their lanes. Mexican traffic flow I have to give a C-, simply because I do not have enough information to make a really fair judgement.



Taxi fares are predetermined in some cities and you negotiate the fare in others. This is only for information and does not warrant a rating.



The biggest drawback for the trip was the fact that the ship had to travel at a significantly reduced speed after Cabo San Lucas, our expected last full day at sea. The Captain spoke over the intercom that we would be arriving in Los Angles much later than planned and if we had other transportation in LA arranged for prior to 5 pm then we should make different plans. We were never informed of the reason for the slow down, so could only speculate. The most often mentioned reason, purely speculation, was that one of the engines failed. For the failure to advise everyone of what the problem was, I rate the cruise line with a very generous C-.



I was on deck sunbathing when this problem was announced. My plan was to rest most of the day. Due to the announcement I had to go get dressed and get into line to use a courtesy phone to change our plane reservations. I believe there were only four phone lines provided for the majority of people. After a couple of hours and moving only about 15 feet closer, Princess decided to hand out tickets with numbers that allowed a person to leave and come back when their ticket group was called. I went back to our cabin to try calling from there. I was told there would be a fee of $5 or $9 per minute, if I called from the room. I tried many times but could not get a dial tone due to everyone else trying to call. I finally got through. Not wanting to take any chances, I made plane reservations for 6:30 pm. All this took up most of our final day at sea. We were extremely fortunate that we got our bags checked in at the airport but with only 4 minutes from the baggage check in cut off time. We sat in the plane for only about 5 minutes before we were on our way. You would think that Princess would anticipate this sort of scenario and would have a plan already in place to address it. This did not seem to be the case because of the poorly managed method used I will rate this problem as a D-.



Yet another sore spot for many people was the obvious fact that Princess Line was taking care of the people that arranged their trips through Princess Lines first. The words used in the later announcements indicated that if your travel plans were made through Princess then they would help you. All others needed to use the courtesy phones. I estimate about 1000 people, or groups, needed to use four free phones. I made the room call thinking I would have a fair sized phone charge on our bill. To give credit to Princess, they did not charge me for my phone call to shore. Handing out numbered tickets about 2 hours after the initial announcement and not advising us of a free phone service from our rooms shows how Princess was ill equipped to handle this low level emergency. As a result of this inefficiency and preferential treatment I can only assign Princess a D-. It would be lower, except for the fact that they did finally hand out tickets and waived room phone charges.



As an additional point for your information: When disembarking at the end of the cruise everyone gets special luggage tags to replace the ones used during embarking. These were all delivered to each stateroom long before there was a problem. There were several categories for leaving the ship, based on the original, estimated docking time of 7am and your original transportation, plane, train, meet someone, etc. These were all coded with red tags with numbers 1 to 6 to enable people to catch their transportation in a timely manner. After these time-critical people, you could disembark based on your deck level. The first deck to leave was LIDO (deck 14) followed by the next deck below and so on. Since the majority of passengers had to make new transportation reservations, you would expect a different colour code or tags would have been issued to everyone. Whether because of cost for new tags or a logistics nightmare, this was not done. It was obvious the original colour tag system no longer had any meaning, yet it was still going to be used. Princess planning ahead earned it only a C-.



The ship finally docked about 3:30pm but we could not leave the ship until about 5pm. New colour luggage tags could not be re-issued so everyone left the ship in essentially the same order as before the mysterious problem occurred. As stated earlier, we barely made our flight.



Again, overall we did have a good vacation, with some problems.



Would we go on another cruise? Not right away to be sure but we do not rule it out entirely either. There were enough good times to outweigh the unfortunate ones. We did meet some wonderful people on this cruise.

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